The Lost Demigod
by SpoonQueenofExistdance
Summary: In his explorations, Leo finds a closed off cavern in Bunker 9. What will he discover when he finds new writing on the walls every time he goes in? Who is writing it? And where did they come from?
1. The Attack

_Hey, friends! Thank you for clicking on my story. Just a note that this is kind of the prologue of the story, but it takes up two chapters. Also, the next two chapters are set in 1864, one year before the civil war ends, and the Romans are on the side of the south. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story!_

The Attack

The clanging of hammers rang through Bunker 9. Campers pounded on swords, worked on projects, and studied maps. At a certain table, a camper was weaving wires through a large bronze sphere.

Seeming to be satisfied with her work, she fastened on the top of the sphere. She set her hand on the side of the sphere, pushing down a small button. She removed her hand, staring intently at the device while she quietly counted, "One… Two… Three… Four… Five…"

The camper's face fell as she continued to stare at the motionless device. She violently ripped open the top of the sphere, peering inside to see why it wasn't working. Upon discovering the problem, she grit her teeth.

Cassandra grunted. Sighing as she disconnected the celestial bronze wires, she turned to Jacob, who was sitting at the work table adjacent to hers.

"This isn't working. The wires can't transport enough power from the core. If we can't get enough power into it, then the kronosphere will not release the time essence."

Cassandra gestured to small vial sitting on the table next to her. The vial contained a small piece of the essence of Kronos- a giftHades gave to the camp for a quest some demigods completed for him years ago. In a fit of frustration, Cassandra threw the wires onto the steel work table and put her head in her hands.

Jacob looked up from the vial of Greek fire he had just assembled, setting it in a bin of other vials to be electrocuted, and sent her a lopsided grin. Despite the war, the son of Hephaestus managed to keep a cheery atmosphere.

"Don't worry Cass, you'll figure it out. Chiron wouldn't have asked you to work on this if he didn't think that you could do it. Besides, you're the smartest child of Athena I know. And the cutest."

Cassandra felt her cheeks grow warm as she let her long, blonde hair fall over her eyes. From behind the curtain of hair she quietly said, "But is it worth all the time and resources that I am spending here? It would be wiser for me to be doing something with better promise; something that will help our warriors now. Instead of a device that might never work in the first place."

Through strands of hair, she glanced over at Jacob. He stood up from his work table, his eyes on Cassandra as he walked over and slid onto the bench next to her. He took his large, calloused hand, and with gentleness uncommon to his size, brushed Cassandra's hair behind her ear. He leaned forward, hazel eyes boring into her stormy blue ones. Without moving his gaze, he cupped his hand under her chin, and quietly he whispered, "You will make it work, and what you are doing is so important. A non-lethal weapon to help us defeat the Romans? There is nothing more anyone out on the field of battle would ask for."

Jacob sighed as he saw the doubt continue to flow through Cassandra's eyes. Not giving up on his efforts to cheer her up, Jacob leaned back a bit.

"Tell you what, why don't you show me where the problem is, and you and I can work it out together?"

Cassandra let out a small breath, a small smile tugging at her lips. She threw her arms around Jacob in a hug.

"Gods, you really are the best boyfriend!"

"I am, aren't I?"

Cassandra let out a giggle, pulling the sphere towards them.

"You see, the wires aren't transporting enough power to the release mechanism." She pointed to parts of the sphere as she explained, "They are too small, but if we make them any bigger, they will interfere with other parts of the sphere. When we get enough power to the mechanism, it will release the confetti I put in instead of the time essence for testing. Now we need about-"

**_Boom!_**

Everyone in the cavern went silent. Screams began to echo in through the halls of the Bunker, and then the sounds of battle.

Every demigod grabbed a weapon. Jacob drew his large broadsword, and Cassandra her double daggers. Everyone was tense with anticipation as the sounds of fighting grew closer.

Suddenly a camper ran in the cavern entrance, only to be shot down by an arrow. Following closely behind the arrow, ranks upon ranks of Romans marched into the room. In the front line, a centurion help up an elaborate gold eagle. The eagle began to send tendrils of lightning into the expanse of the cavern. Screams sounded, and demigods rushed forward to battle.

Jacob swung his sword, cutting a path through the centurions, while Cassandra protected their flanks. The couple surged forward, and so did the Romans.

As Jacob knocked over a centurion with the flat of his sword, Cassandra finishing him off, she had a sudden thought. With a look of horror on her face, she turned towards the work table. The vial of time essence sat where she had left it, with Roman ranks moving steadily closer to it.

"I have to secure the time essence!"

She shouted to Jacob, sheathing one of her daggers and sprinting back towards her table. A centurion moved to block her way, but Cassandra punched his face and kept running.

Sliding to the ground to use her table for cover, she quickly reached up and grabbed the vial. She rolled away as a bolt of lightning struck the table behind her, coming to a standing position in front of Jacob's table.

A sword swung towards her face. Cassandra ducked beneath it, slicing the stomach of the wielder. As she straightened up she heard Jacob shout to her.

"Cassie!"

Cassandra turned her head towards the work table, the box of unfinished vials of Greek fire still sitting on its surface. Her eyes widened as a tendril of lightning struck the box, completing the fire and bursting all of the vials.

As an explosion of green began to expand from the table, Cassandra turned her head to look at Jacob one last time. She stared into his panicked eyes as her body was consumed with pain, and her vision went black.

X X X

Cassandra's back throbbed. She felt that she was laying on many small objects, which we digging into her spine.

Cassandra slowly opened her eyes. High above her, she saw assortments of catwalks and cages, all of which were blackened and burned. She was still in Bunker 9.

Despite the numbness in her arms, she pushed herself up. It was then she noticed that she was laying in a pile of blackened rocks. Those were what had been digging into her back.

As her senses came back to her, Cassandra noticed she could hear a faint conversation. Testing her strength, she let her feet find the floor, and stood up. She swayed on her feet, but still began to walk toward the noise, and she saw just how much destruction the Greek fire had done.

Tables were misshapen, with tools and weapons melted onto their surfaces. The table where the vials had been was a puddle of cooled steel, and anything within a ten foot radius had been turned pitch black. The explosion had travelled up the walls, leaving vertical streaks of ash, and even causing some of the walls to collapse. This left large piles of rubble all over the cavern, like the ones Cassandra had been lying on.

As she came out from one such pile, walking towards the hallway entrance to the cavern, she saw two figures through the hazy air. The first was the grim faced centaur, Chiron, whose white horse flank shone like a beacon to Cassandra against the ashen greys and blacks of everything else. The second figure was a camper, Hayden, from Apollo cabin, she recognized as she came closer. She continued to stumble forward until she could make out what they were saying.

"-no survivors." Hayden softly said.

"Could you identify any of the bodies?" Chiron inquired.

"Not many, but we did find Lisa Franks, Charles Wood, and Jacob Haley of Hephaestus cabin, and from-"

Cassandra's returning senses instantly numbed again. She let out a loud sob, and with tears welling in her eyes she hugged her stomach and fell to her knees. Near hysteria, she mumbled, "No. Jacob can't be dead. He can't be gone. He can't leave me!" She was in denial. She had just seen him moments before. Moments before an explosion of Greek fire decimated the room.

Cassandra's thoughts were interrupted when she heard Chiron speak her name.

"And what of Cassandra?" Chiron asked, seeming to fear the worst.

Hayden sighed, "We have no confirmed body for her, though she could be one of the more… gruesome ones. However, we do have reports from her cabinmates that she was leaving for the Bunker to work on the kronosphere about an hour before, and no reports of her return."

Chiron let out a long breath, his eyes looking to the floor as his worst fears were confirmed.

Cassandra stood up, thoughts suddenly working clearly. They should have noticed her by now, especially with her tearful outburst. Standing up, Cassandra began walking towards the pair.

"Chiron, I am right here."

Neither of the two showed any signs of hearing her.

"Chiron?"

Reaching them, Cassandra stepped between the two, waving her arms.

"Hello?!?!"

"They can't see or hear you," a cool, flowing voice answered.

Cassandra whirled around to see who had spoken to her, but instead found herself right in front of Chiron. He seemed to stare directly through her as he said, "We should head back, the camp will need to be addressed."

Without any hesitation, Chiron proceeded to walk through Cassandra. She hugged her stomach in horror feeling as if a warm wind had just blown through her insides. She turned to watch the Chiron and Hayden walking down the cavern hallway, and took a step to run after them.

"There is no use trying to follow them."

Cassandra turned slowly this time, searching for the velvety voice which had spoken. When she found the source, she was in awe.

The speaker's hair was black, his skin clear and pale, and his face was nothing short of handsome. He wore an ink black toga, and flowing, feathered black wings rose from his shoulder blades. His eyes swirled like midnight, and his entire body shone like the moon glinting softly as falls beneath the horizon.

"Who are you?" Cassandra whispered.

"I am Thanatos, the god of death."

_Hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Feel free to comment your likes and dislikes. The next chapter will come as soon as possible!_


	2. Not Quite Dead

_Comment Replies:_

_Qoheleth - There are multiple reasons I chose for the Romans to be on the Sourthern side. The first apparent one to me being the use of slaves in the South. Slavery was a common thing in ancient Rome, so I just put the two together. Another reason is that we know that the Greeks were at current Camp Half-Blood in 1864, which we learned in The Lost Hero, when Leo first discovers Bunker 9, when he finds a map from that year. Since I knew that the Greeks were in the North, and at the time they were not on friendly terms with the Romans, I figured that the Romans would want to be as far away as possible. This ended up with them being in the South, until they eventually travel to California. Now, I don't know as much about the civil war as I want to, so I went with what made the most sense to me. I admire that you know that much about the time period.__Hey, friends! Here is the prologue part 2! We are picking up right where we left off. Hope you enjoy_!

Not Quite Dead

"I am Thanatos, the god of Death."

Cassandra took a moment to process that. This was a god, so she needed to tread carefully.

"Why are you here?"

Thanatos sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Why do they always ask that?" He mumbled. "You're dead! Why else would I be here?"

Cassandra stumbled back, her mind reeling. She couldn't be dead. She could still feel the floor beneath her feet. And she was still in Bunker 9. She looked at her arms. She felt solid, but then again, Chiron had walked straight through her. Cassandra took a breath.

"If I am dead, then why am I still here? Don't souls go straight to the Underworld when they die?"

"Hmm… Someone taking an interest? This doesn't happen very often. Most people are caught up in the fact that they are dead and…"

Cassandra stared at Thanatos.

"Right," he said, his dark wings fluttering a bit. He briefly glanced at a watch on his left wrist.

"I suppose I have a bit of time to explain. Yes, most souls do travel directly to the Underworld. However, some souls, like yours, cling to the mortal world. It often has something to do with unfinished business, attachment to other people, unsatisfied revenge, that sort of thing. Anyway, it is my job to track down these souls and take them to the Underworld. There was one point when there were so many souls to find that Zeus appointed Hermes to help. You wouldn't believe the pay cut I took from that!"

Thanatos looked at his watch again, then held out his hand for Cassandra.

"But now we had better get going. Come, I have more souls to track after this, and who knows what Hades will do if I don't fill my quota for today?"

Cassandra stared at Thanatos' hand, not moving a muscle. How could she go to the Underworld. There was so much she still didn't understand. There was still so much she needed to do.

"You can't just take me!"

Thantos let out a long breath, rolling his eyes as he announced, "I don't have time for this."

He strode towards Cassandra, arm stretched out. She stumbled back in fear, putting her arms between Thanatos and herself. He tried to grab her wrist, but his hand fell through her like she was mist. A shiver went through Cassandra's entire body as the uncomfortable warm wind went through her once again. Thanatos took a step back. Even he looked confused. He crossed his arms, a contemplative look on his face.

"It seems that I was wrong. If you were dead, I would be able to touch you."

"What?"

Cassandra glared at the annoyingly calm Thanatos. How could he talk so nonchalantly about this?

"But you just said-"

"Well I was wrong."

"But then why couldn't my friends see or hear me. Chiron walked right through me, for the god's sakes!"

Thanatos tilted his head, looking at Cassandra as she were a lion who decided to play with the gazelle, instead of eating it; a result no one would ever expect.

"Hmm… Not quite dead, but not living either. Interesting."

Thanatos stared at Cassandra a moment longer, then turned abruptly, walking towards the hallway of the cavern.

"Well, I'm off to capture more souls."

Cassandra blinked, taking a moment to realize that Thanatos was leaving.

"You mean you are just going to leave me here?" She exclaimed.

Thanatos called over his shoulder, "I told you, I've got things to do."

"But you can't!"

"I am a god. You don't have the authority to tell me what I can or cannot do."

Cassandra felt her pulse quicken. Her breathing grew faster. Her hands began to shake, and her eyes began to water. She stared at Thanatos with rage, her vision slowly turning red.

Darkness pooled around her, seeping into her body, slowly turning her skin the same grey as the rest of the cavern. Her feet were lifted off the ground by shadows. An inhuman snarl emerged from her lips.

Thanatos turned, taking in the darkness now surrounding her. His hard eyes softened a bit, and he strode back to Cassandra. She growled as he came close, but didn't move.

His wings lifted him in the air, faint light reflecting off the feathers like shimmering stars in the night. He moved until he was face to face with Cassandra, gently placing his index finger on her forehead.

All the darkness accumulating around her was sucked into Thanatos as if he were a black hole. Cassandra slowly drifted to the ground, shaking her head. She looked up at Thanatos.

"I would keep control of your emotions," he softly advised. "If you dwell too much on them, you will turn into _mania_. A creature concerned only with satisfying its last burning emotion, at any cost. Now, I really must leave."

Thanatos turned once again to leave the cavern.

"What will happen to me now?"

Thanatos paused and sighed. Turning to Cassandra one last time he said, "I suppose you will dwell here until you either fade away or become a _mania_. I have only prevented the inevitable."

With this final comment, Thanatos walked into the hallway, fading slowly until the last echoes of his footsteps were all that remained of his presence.

X X X

Cassandra's knees ached as she walked down the hallway. She had finally gotten up. After Thanatos had left, she stayed kneeling in the ashes of the cavern, controlling her breathing. After feeling such rage, she was in no hurry to discover any new tragedies about her situation.

At last she had gotten up, and walked out of the cavern. She no longer wanted to dwell in the final resting place of her love, and all the enemies responsible for his death; her death. And her final resting place.

As she entered the main chamber of Bunker 9, she grimaced. The place was strewn with the evidence of a battle.

Lost weapons and unfinished projects littered the floor, some on stone, others in puddles of drying blood. Tables had been overturned to provide cover, and there were large spikes of black soot from bombs and flames alike.

A single tear traced its way down Cassandra's cheek as she turned away from the sight. She instead focused on the limestone entry doors as she walked. They were on the wall opposite the hallway she had just entered from. Each one was five times as tall as her, and the one to her right stood half open, daylight spilling in and falling to the blood covered floor.

What a cruel thing of nature. To have bright weather mark the darkest day of Cassandra's life. Cassandra skirted around the edge of the light, afraid of the warmth, as if it might not come to her.

When she could avoid it no longer, she finally took a step into the sun spilling in through the door. Despite her fears, she felt the sunlight on her face, warmth flowing from her cheeks down to the rest of her body.

She continued her pace until she reached the threshold of the door, pausing. Cassandra was unsure of why she paused, but decided to trust her instincts.

Tentatively, she lifted her hand. When she placed it outside the threshold, it faded away, and in it she felt… nothing; as if it were never there. Cassandra gasped slightly as she pulled her arm back in. Slowly her hand solidified back into place, and she wiggled her fingers slightly as their feeling returned.

Cassandra took another moment in the light, unsure if she would ever get to feel it again, being trapped in the Bunker forever.

X X X

One week. That is how long it took for things to return to normal. If you could call it normal. Cassandra had spent most of that time in the main chamber of Bunker 9, not willing to return to the burned cavern.

She had watched the demigods come in one morning to clean up, righting tables and mopping up blood. By afternoon you would not have been able to tell anything had happened from looking in the Bunker. However, you could instantly tell from the camp's mood.

As they came and went from the Bunker, no one joked. No one smiled. When anyone talked, it was in hushed tones. But since there was still a war going, they could not avoid the Bunker. By the end of that one week, Cassandra was sitting on a large pad, watching other campers work.

By her side sat BO-175, or as the camp affectionately knew him, Bolts. He was a 60 foot bronze dragon. He had long talons, curved to capture monsters in them. His sharp teeth strong enough to cut into metal.

This dragon was primarily made to protect the borders of the camp, but was currently in the Bunker for a tune up. In addition, he was the only one who seemed to sense Cassandra. When he was brought in, he had bounded straight up to her, red eyes highlighting the spot where she stood. One of his builders, a guy named Oliver, came over and told him, "Hey, there is nothing there, boy. Come on now. Get up on the pad so I can give you a checkup."

The dragon had complied, but when Cassandra had sat next to him on the building pad, he laid his head down next to her. She now sat stroking his head, watching everyone work on their projects.

Times like this were easiest for her to manage. She had a distraction to keep her from feeling too much, and the comfort from Bolts helped, too. When she was alone, all she could think about was all that she had lost. She would have to sit down and focus on her breathing. She was determined not to become the monster she had felt emerging in her rage. She would rather fade into nothing.

Suddenly, a yelp echoed from a nearby table. A boy stumbled backward, the saw he had just been using was now floating in the air, jabbing at anyone near. Or, at least, that's what the campers saw.

Cassandra froze. A dark figure was standing on the work table, holding the saw above its head. The creature was dripping black, like tar. Its gleaming red eyes fixed on the demigod cowering on the floor. In a loud, raspy voice it screamed, "Kill the Greeks!"

The figure jumped from the table, saw poised to impale the camper, when Cassandra felt a whoosh of air, and saw the gleam of bronze above her. As the saw fell, it bounced harmlessly off the celestial bronze hide of the sixty foot killer dragon.

Bolts pounced on the creature, having no trouble making contact. Campers screamed and ran for the exit. Some shouted attempts to counter the attack, but no one was eager to fight something they couldn't see.

Cassandra was still sitting on the pad, thoughts filled with horror. She knew that the creature was the exact image of what she had turned into when she was overcome with rage. The creature was a _mania_.

Cassandra was pulled out of her frozen shock as Bolts let out a pained roar. She jumped to her feet, attention turned to the center of the room. It was not looking good.

The _mania_ and the dragon wrestled each other, Bolts trying ferociously to keep it in his claws. The _mania_ slipped through a small gap, levitating as it threw itself away, shadowy arms reaching out for the fleeing campers. Bolts lunged in front of the _mania_, forcing it backward. It rose higher in the air and circled the large dragon, then suddenly changed direction, letting out an unearthly scream as it charged the dragon head on.

Cassandra gasped as the _mania_ phased through Bolts' head. Sparks flew, and when the _mania_ exited his head, Bolts let out an ear blasting roar. He swung his tail, knocking over many of the work tables, throwing them into the walls. He tilted his head upward, shooting a column of fire up into the catwalks high above. More sparks sprayed from his head, and the dragon turned and bounded out the giant doors, disappearing into the woods.

The _mania_ lowered to the ground, and began stalking towards the hoards of campers scrambling out of the Bunker. Cassandra desperately looked down at her sides, looking for something she could use to help. For the first time, she noticed that one of her daggers was sheathed in her belt. The other had been in her hand when the Greek fire tore through the room, and was probably a melted puddle of bronze.

She didn't dwell on it long. As the _mania_ let out another ear piercing screech, Cassandra sprinted to confront it, drawing her dagger as she ran.

The _mania_ grabbed a girl's arm, wrenching her backward. As the girl struggled, Cassandra reached the _mania_.

"Hey!" She yelled.

She gripped her dagger, slicing downward as she slid to a stop. The _mania's_ shadowy right arm melted away, releasing the girl, and as she ran, the _mania_ bellowed out a roar.

It turned to Cassandra. Even with one arm, it looked menacing.

"You didn't like that, did you?"

The _mania_ snarled, stepping closer to her. Behind it, Cassandra could see the last of the demigods exit the limestone doors, and they slowly began to swing closed.

The _mania_ turned, and upon seeing the doors closing, began to race towards them. Cassandra sprinted after it, but was hopelessly behind. She wouldn't catch up in time. The doors were nearly closed, and the _mania_ was going to make it. Cassandra wouldn't allow it.

She raised her dagger, aimed, then let it fly. The dagger flew true, lodging itself in the _mania's_ left shoulder blade. The _mania_ fell to the ground on impact, but immediately its remaining arm bent backward, wrenched the dagger out, and tossed it aside. However, Cassandra had bought just enough time. The doors closed with a soft thud, and the _mania_ threw itself into them. It pounded its fist against the limestone, then launched itself at Cassandra, fingers clawing to rip her throat out.

It came straight for her, but when it should have made contact, it split into shadow, flowing on either side of Cassandra, coming into solid form again behind her. Cassandra turned, smirking.

"You can't kill something that's already dead."

The _mania_ growled, glaring at her. With a final grunt, it spiraled upward into the catwalks above, disappearing into the dark.

Cassandra kept her gaze up there another moment, making sure it was really gone.

Then she strode over to her dagger, and picked it up. She looked into its reflective surface, her own face staring back. Her hair still blonde, and her eyes a stormy blue. Cassandra closed her eyes, imagining the hair darkened black, and eyes a maniacal red.

"No." She muttered as she sheathed her dagger. She would not become one of them. And having eternity ahead of her, she vowed to never let the _mania_ escape.

_Hope you enjoyed the second chapter, and an early version of Festus! Feel free to comment your likes and dislikes. Since school is starting, chapters will come slower, as I have less time to write them, but I will do my best to update as often as possible. Finally, always remember to be kind and have a good day!_


	3. Repair Boy

_Comment replies:__MilkandCheez - Thank you so much! My writing has never been called eloquent before. This story been swimming around my head for a long time now, so I have had a lot of time to work out the details of it. Thank you so much for the comment!__Hey friends, sorry this has taken so long to write. School dance every day low mental stability = approximately zero time to write. But hey, I made it! Here is the actual beginning of the story. I guess it still is full of exposition, but things should be getting more interesting. Hope you enjoy this new chapter!_

**Repair Boy**

Cassandra did as she vowed. She never left the main cavern of Bunker 9, and always watched for _mania_. Since the initial attack, Cassandra had glimpsed other _mania_ lurking in the shadows, glaring at her from the dark.

Though she now required no rest, Cassandra had trouble keeping track of them all. There seemed to be so many. It pained Cassandra to think of it. So many souls stripped of their being, the only remnant being the vicious _mania_; nothing left but pure manic emotion.

She also feared the possibility of someone coming back. If someone opened the doors from the outside, all the _mania_ would escape. The camp wouldn't send anyone back for a week at the earliest, but Cassandra knew she needed to do something to catch the _mania_. She used her gifts as a child of Athena to set a trap.

She knew that they couldn't leave a room if the exit was blocked, as the one couldn't phase through the limestone doors. She also knew that they followed her everywhere, glowing eyes glaring from the shadows. The third day after the incident, Cassandra had been looking at one such pair of eyes as she walked, when she felt something hard against her foot. She lurched forward, hands slamming against the cold floor, and the rest of her following after.

Cassandra pushed herself into a sitting position, then looked at her hands. Despite their hard impact, she could see no blood or scrapes. She then looked back where she had been, to see why she had fallen. Her foot lay next to the leg of a worktable on its side, knocked over in the fight of Bolts and the _mania_. Slowly she stood up, and walking tentatively over to the table, she set her hand on it.

It didn't phase through. She recoiled her hand slightly as the cold steel bit at her fingers. Cassandra looked at her hand, and then the ground. At her feet lay a hammer. She bent down, and her hand hovered over it for a moment. Carefully, she set her hand on the hammer, fingers curling around the wooden handle. A triumphant smile worked its way to Cassandra's lips. She stood up, hammer in hand, an idea already forming in her head.

Cassandra walked to the nearest wall of the bunker, knowing exactly what she needed. She explored row after row of wooden shelves and drawers, until she finally found what she was looking for, dynamite. Soon after, the trap was set.

Cassandra stood before the tall archway that led into the hallway. She took a deep breath, preparing her mind for the torment she was about to put it through. Before she could second guess herself, she began an even pace towards the hallway she had walked out of just weeks before. She shivered as she entered the dark corridor.

She glanced behind her, and sure enough, countless dark figures peered at her with their eerie glowing eyes. She turned her eyes forward, and didn't look back again.

Slowly the stone around her shifted from a pale grey to ashen black. Dark horizontal streaks lined the walls as the hallway opened up once again, this time into the final resting place of all that Cassandra used to know.

A shuddered wove its way down her spine as she entered the cavern, but Cassandra kept walking, knowing that if she stopped she might not ever continue. Keeping her eyes to the outer edges of the walls, Cassandra found her way around many piles of rubble, finally stopping near the back edge of the cavern.

At last she turned around, and she saw that the _mania_ had gathered in the shadows of large crevices in the rocky wall on either side of her. So far, her plan had worked to perfection, but now came the hardest part.

Cassandra reluctantly looked through the middle of the cavern, memories emerging from the edges of her mind, but being pushed back by the walls Cassandra had created there, and her sheer determination. Quickly she located the clearest route to the hallway she had entered from. However, this path ran right through the hardened puddle of steel, where the Greek fire had been. Despite her efforts, tears started to cloud Cassandra's eyes, and her sight was rimmed with red. Closing her eyes, Cassandra took a deep breath. She focused solely on the task ahead of her. In her mind's eye, she could still clearly see the path she needed to take. She took one more deep breath, her muscles tightening with anticipation.

Abruptly, hoping it would catch the _mania_ off guard, Cassandra sprinted through the room. Although she could not afford to look back, she knew that the _mania_ would be following close behind. She didn't slow as she ran into the dark hallway. She began watching frantically for the rock she had placed on the ground.

Finally, she saw it. A fist sized gray rock with a small line of string around it. Cassandra slowed slightly as she picked up the rock, hurling it behind her as far as she could. In the dark she could almost see the two live wires she had set up, converging on the fuse to the dynamite. She could almost hear the sparks crackling as they travelled up the fuse. Cassandra pushed herself harder, picking up her pace, knowing she didn't have much time left.

Now she could hear the _mania_ hissing behind her, likely not more than five feet behind her as she saw the opening of the hallway in front of her. Suddenly, an ear splitting **BOOM** echoed into the cavern, and the archway into the cavern began to crumble. Cassandra pushed one last time, sliding into the cavern as the entryway crumbled behind her.

Cassandra sat on the floor for several minutes, gasping for air. During that time, she could hear the _mania_ pounding the rocks on the other side, but she could not find any evidence that any of the _mania_ had made it through. With this knowledge, she layed on the cold floor, wishing she could sleep and forget everything that had happened to her.

X X X

They never came back. Cassandra had waited. And waited. And waited. She counted the days as best she could, hoping desperately that someone would return.

She stopped counting when she got to nine; nine months. Every day before there had been a glint of hope as she paced restlessly in front of the limestone doors she yearned to walk through. But now, she knew she was cursed to remain alone forever, to bear her burden in solitude.

With her days of hope behind her, Cassandra's days were now filled with nothingness and boredom. She uprighted all the worktables, setting each of the scattered half finished projects onto them, not having the heart to finish the work of dead men. She rearranged the contents of every cabinet and shelve into alphabetical order, then reverse order, and then back again. As time passed she drew pictures in the dust of the empty expanse of Bunker 9, as well as poems and songs. But each of these faded as more dust fell to cover them, as more time passed.

After a while, she didn't even want to move anymore. She just lied on the platform where her friend, Bolts had been assembled, staring up aimlessly at the ceiling, where his majestic wings hanged, never to be given to that which they were intended for.

It was then she thought of Bolts, and what might have become of him. The last she saw of him, the mania had damaged his circuts, and he had run off into the woods. Did the camp find and repair him? Has he run off on his own? Has he left the camp? She hoped the best for him.

Cassandra had now been in the Bunker so long, it felt like the whole human race could have been destroyed, and she would have no way of knowing, but that's when everything changed.

Cassandra was lying on the platform in darkness. Each hour was as indistinguishable as the last, but she didn't really care what time it was anyway. She wondered how long it would take for her to fade away, like Thanatos had speculated.

When the door first swung open Cassandra thought she was seeing things. Glimmering moonlight spilled into the cavern, and onto Cassandra's face. She blinked. As she was sitting up, a large figure blocked the light as it came in. When the lights flickered on, Cassandra cried out in joy. Bolts had returned.

Bolts marched up to Cassandra, pausing in front of her. She reached out her hand and stroked his snout.

"I missed you," she whispered.

Bolts hopped onto the platform and curled up next to Cassandra. She continued to stroke the dragon, when she heard a voice.

"Festus, what _is_ this place?"

Cassandra looked to the center of the cavern. There stood a short Hispanic boy, covered in oil and grease. His black curly hair stuck out in all sorts of directions, and he ears were pointed like an elf's. His wide, brown eyes flew around the room, unable to focus on one thing for very long.

"Do the other kids know…?"

The question died in his throat. Cassandra knew it was apparent that no living thing had been in this cavern for a long time. He cautiously walked over to one wall, looking at a paper hanging on the wall, a battle map left of Camp Half Blood, where some of the Athena and Ares campers had been planning out defenses before… before everything happened. Upon seeing it, he muttered "No way."

He then moved on to a nearby drawing, one a camper had drawn long ago, even before she had ever set foot in the bunker. The writing on it made no logical sense, and Cassandra had never given the drawing a second thought. But this boy seemed to recognize it. He rushed towards it to get a closer look. He studied the drawing intensely, then began switching his gaze between the drawing and Bolts.

"Looks like you, Festus. That's creepy."

Cassandra had tilted her head slightly. Who was this Festus he kept referring to?

Next to her, Bolts snorted, and the boy turned to look at him. Bolts lifted his head towards the boy, then nudged a yellow toolbelt which had been left on the pad towards him. Then he switched on his red eye beams and pointed them to the ceiling, where his wings hung. The boy looked up and yelped upon seeing them. Eyes still looking up at the wings he said, "Festus, we've got work to do."

Suddenly Cassandra understood. The boy was talking to Bolts, but calling him Festus. But in Latin that meant…

"Happy the Dragon." Cassandra muttered. "An apt description."

The boy picked up the toolbelt and fastened it around his waist. Bolts let out a rumbling noise as he watched.

"It does suit him, doesn't it?" Cassandra said.

The boy looked down at the toolbelt for a moment, then up at the ceiling, then where Cassandra and Bolts were sitting.

"Well Buddy," he said, "We'd better work on your control disk, and attach your wings, if we are going to go on this quest. We can't have Jason replacing me. He wouldn't be able to find anyone as talented or wickedly handsome."

The boy winked at the dragon, and then opened the control panel on its head. Cassandra was smiling. She hadn't felt this good in a long time. There was just something about this boy, a special presence that just seemed to make things better.

Then it hit her. He reminded her of Jacob. This boy's quirky smile, sense of humor, and big eyes full of wonder, all took her back to memories of Jacob. Which in turn led her to thinking of the day he died. Cassandra hadn't thought of that day in so long, she wasn't prepared for it.

Tears began streaming down her face as she thought of the past. Wind began to swirl around the room as shadows began to lengthen, reaching towards Cassandra and her sorrows, when suddenly a voice cut clearly into her mind.

"Festus, where is that wind coming from?"

With this anchor of a clear thought, Cassandra pulled herself from the whirlpool of her emotions. That was too close.

As Cassandra gasped for breath and wiped tears from her eyes, she looked towards the boy repairing Bolts. His eyes flitted around the room nervously.

"Please not Tia Callida," he whispered.

In the silence, his eyes swept the room once more. Finally, he looked back down at the control panel in the dragon's head.

"We should hurry up and finish you, shouldn't we?" He spoke nervously.

Though she knew he could not hear her, Cassandra couldn't resist to reply, "Yes, my Repair Boy, we should."

_Hey friends! We finally got some Leo in here! I have been excited to put him in since I wrote the first chapter. Things are starting to get interesting. As always, feel free to comment your likes and dislikes. I do so enjoy your criticisms and praises, and I try to reply to every one of them. Be kind, and have a great day!_


End file.
